John Kiriakou, former CIA agent, to serve 30 months in jail for leaking agent’s name
Witnesses are seated as the US Senate Intelligence Committee holds a full committee hearing on “World Wide Threats.” on January 31, 2012 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, with witnesses including CIA director David Petraeus.
John Kiriakou, the first CIA agent to ever be convicted of leaking classified information to a reporter, will begin serving his 30-month sentence on January 25.
The former agent pled guilty Tuesday to charges related to his whistleblowing about the CIA and US government's torture methods for suspected terrorists, the International News reported.
He also admitted to violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act when he e-mailed a reporter the name of an undercover agent, as part of a plea deal to lessen his prison time, according to a profile by the New York Times.
“I should never have provided the name,” he told the Times. “I regret doing it, and I never will do it again.”
Kiriakou quit the agency in 2004 after almost 15 successful years at the CIA, including several undercover missions in search of Al Qaeda members and other terrorists, and was the head of the team that captured Al Qaeda logistics specialist Abu Zubaydah in 2002, the Times reported.
More from GlobalPost: Ex-CIA officer who talked to press about waterboarding charged under Espionage Act